On Saturday, October 12th, three of our five Junior High Cross Country runners competed in the Junior High State Championships held in Papillion, Nebraska. These were 8th graders William Gaswick & Duke Turman who ran in the Open Race, and Arian Mata who ran in the Championship Race. There were 446 boys registered in the open and 343 in the championship. There were also 317 girls registered in the open and 282 in the championship race. This means in all there were 1,388 athletes registered for this event.
The schedule has the Championship races first, followed by the open, with the girls running first in both classes. Championship racers are the top runners in 7th & 8th grades only, while younger athletes are able to run in the open race.
Arian finished #17 with a time of 10:55.67. This time put him ahead of all of the runners in the open class as well, which puts him in the top 2% of the 789 boys who competed. His time was also good enough for second place if he were only running against other Class D athletes! The only other Class D runner finished in 11th place.
Duke finished #202 in the Open with a time of 14:49.36 & William #284 with a time of 16:17.15. Looking at both races combined Duke finished ahead of 296 athletes and William ahead of 197 athletes.
We are so proud of our Junior Hawks Cross Country runners!